Tevez reveals he 'wanted to kill' Neville after acrimonious Manchester United exit

Carlos Tevez has admitted he wanted to go after Gary Neville on the pitch following the former Manchester United captain’s public criticism of his 2009 move to City, with Rio Ferdinand drawing the confession out of the Argentine during a candid exchange.

Tevez made one of English football’s most provocative transfers when he crossed Manchester’s divide after a contract dispute at Old Trafford, where he had won multiple Premier League titles and the Champions League. Neville publicly accused Tevez of disrespecting Sir Alex Ferguson, a charge the striker has consistently rejected.

When Ferdinand told Tevez — on his YouTube channel — “When I played against you, you wanted to kill Gary Neville,” the former striker smirked and replied: “Gary, he said that I didn’t respect Ferguson. He didn’t understand me. He didn’t understand the situation.”

Tevez’s grievance runs deeper than Neville’s comments alone. He claims Ferguson had promised to sign him permanently once his two-year loan from West Ham expired, a pledge he says was never honoured. “I think that Ferguson had, from the day we talked, up to six months to keep his word. And he didn’t,” Tevez said. “On the contrary, he started leaving me on the bench.”

Neville’s frustration with the transfer has never fully subsided. The United legend has previously said: “I couldn’t understand how he would want to engineer a move to your closest rivals. I couldn’t understand it, the lack of loyalty. You come to United, you embed yourself in the team and you wed yourself to the club.”

The animosity translated into fierce on-field encounters. Tevez scored three times across a two-legged League Cup semi-final against United in his first season at City, though his side ultimately lost the tie. He later survived a public falling-out with manager Roberto Mancini and an extended absence from the squad before returning to play a key role in City’s historic 2011-12 Premier League title win — their first in 44 years.

Neville’s criticism resurfaced publicly when he accused Tevez of downing tools at City, prompting a live on-air confrontation with the striker’s agent, Kia Joorabchian, who defended his client in real time. The episode underlined just how raw the original dispute remained years after Tevez had left Old Trafford.

Tevez, who scored 84 Premier League goals across spells at West Ham, United, and City, remains one of the most divisive figures in the history of the Manchester rivalry.